To close out 2020, Comics Academe asked contributors to write about the conferences, articles, and books that had the biggest impact on them. They attended virtual conferences and comic cons and read, wrote, and were recognized for groundbreaking work in and around comics studies.
I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Comics as Method and Holding Environment
Last week, in “I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Therefore I Am,” I wrote about how I got to drawing my dissertation, drawing comics as scholarship, and about comics as a way to think. Building on that, this week I want to start with the concept of “holding environments” (term originally coined by Donald Woods Winnicott…
I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Therefore I Am
[Editors’ note: In part one of a two-part essay, Ph.D. candidate Kay Sohini writes about drawing a graphic dissertation, comics as scholarship, and comics as thinking. In part two, coming next week, Sohini builds on what she’s written here as she writes about comics as literary affordances and holding environments, key ideas in her graphic…
Con(ference) Diary: CSS19 Comics/Politics
The Comics Studies Society held its second annual conference at Toronto’s Ryerson University over the last weekend of July. Drawing on the theme, Comics/Politics, CSS19 attendees from around the world participated in a conference that foregrounded Canadian comics scholarship and practice in plenaries featuring Tara Audibert, Cole Pauls, Camille Callison, Jillian Tamaki, and Fiona Smyth.
Focus on Comics Scholarship: an interview with Frederik Byrn Køhlert
Routledge will be publishing a series of scholarly texts on “Gender, Sexuality and Comics Studies,” as part of its Focus Collection, which offers quick publication of peer-reviewed work, of a length generally associated with a too-long chapter, or too-short monograph: 20,000 to 50,000 words including notes and references. The editor for the Gender, Sexuality and…
Project GraphicBio: Interview with Dr. Candida Rifkind
Professor Candida Rifkind has recently concluded a years-long project called Project GraphicBio at University of Winnipeg. Funded in part by a 2015-18 Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, she studied biographies in graphic form, with various groups of students for several semesters. I first heard about the project through…
Looking at Suffering: A Review of Ethics in the Gutter
Ethics in the Gutter: Empathy and Historical Fiction in Comics Kate Polak The Ohio State University Press September 20, 2017 CONTENT WARNING: This book includes discussions of genocide, alcoholism, sexual assault, and racism, as well as images depicting blood, gun violence, animal cruelty, and lynching.
Previously on Comics: Comics Was Only Mostly a Dumpster Fire This Week
We’re going to start off this week with some good news for once. Remember a few weeks ago when we told you about our IndieGoGo campaign to fund WWAC’s move to a new web host? Well, the campaign was a roaring success, meeting 159% of our goal. Our sincerest thanks to everyone who contributed or…
Comics Academe: Hellos and Hildebrand
Editors Note: I am pleased to introduce the first article by a new Comics Academe contributor, Tiffany Babb, who will be sharing with us the view from inside academia, and specifically, the how she tackles the common academic dilemma of how to study comics when your institutional program does not have a comics studies program. Since…
Whaleish Work in the Disciplines: Comics and Religion Swimming Around
The last time you heard from me—and it’s been a while—I was urging academics who love comics to find their peers and work with them. I took my own advice! I was delighted to be a part of the Comics and Sacred Texts Symposium at Haverford College. It was wonderful to collaborate with scholars that…